ah... New York (another pretentious note to a reader who will probably never read this)

In my various lines of work I am sometimes asked to interpret (translate) conversations, some of which occur over the telephone. This provides me with the somewhat unique opportunity to do so with people in different, sometimes far away places. It also sometimes requires me to perform odd linguistic tasks that would otherwise be unthinkable or obnoxious, such as refer to myself implicitly and explicitly in the third person, so as to be as unobtrusive to the conversation as possible.

However, without fail, for a particular entity that is located (I believe) in New York, when, as happens frequently, the Spanish-speaking person utters "muy amable" ([you are] very kind) at the end of the call, I know that she is referring to me, and not to your annoying, rude person, even though I render it (as I should) in English as though she were, you stupid New York asshole.